Realm of Dregspine

Chapter 1: Miners of Mediocrity

Miners of Mediocrity Saturday, April 2nd 2016
Each of our intrepid adventurers made their own journey to the river town of Sot Hinge in search of fame and fortune. None knowing the existence of the other; each found their own trail leading to a waterfront inn named “The Red Bull Inn”. Sadly, one tavern drink later they found themselves drugged and shanghaied for an unscheduled trip down the Folange River.
Our heroes woke up in the precarious clutches of the theocratic ruling council in Kainex. At first, they had a hard time explaining their situation to their captors. Luroka Hammerdust was behind their unfortunate capture. Having drugged each of the individual heroes before placing a dangerously worded political propaganda parchment in each of their possessions.

One of the mysterious “Red Guard” turns out to be the Dwarven Sorcerer, Finnard Stonebeard; whom is sympathetic to their situation in general and seems to be a well placed caretaker over the Dwarven mining population in Kainex. This dynamic group of adventurers forms an alliance in an effort to discover the motive behind such dire treachery and gain some traction against it. Each of these heroes is released from custody with instructions to find out more information from Finnard Stonebeard at The Dusty Hammer in the Undercity beneath Kainex.

The party forms… Majnus the Elven Fighter, Torin the Human Fighter, Shadowmoon the Half-Elven Bard, Chili the Human Wizard, and Bumstone the Dwarven Cleric.

They set out in search of The Rusty Hammer in the depths of the Undercity over 1000ft below the surface of Kainex. Passing through the Undercity and asking some questions gave the party a history lesson in the politics of Kainex and it’s expatriot Dwarven miners from the Hall of Forges. They discovered a larger and more popular tavern called The Dead Miner before they got directions leading the party a mile down a large main tunnel to the Northwest. The Rusty Hammer sat at the corner of an intersection in this old main tunnel and the party made entry. It was then that they were instructed by the regular clients of this tavern to “Stomp your boots and shake your cloaks”.

It is technically here that our heroes discovered the true identity of their “Red Robed Interrogator” to be Finnard Stonebeard disguising himself as a taller person by doing a disjointedly poor job of walking on stilts underneath the red robes.

Each of the party members was given a Moongate Pendant and some of the tavern’s famous Tunnel Meat Stew before Finnard sent them back to the surface for the next step of their quest.

The party returned to the surface and endeavored to meet Finnard at his mage tower near the Bloody Colliseum. Chili, Torin and Bumstone were brimming over with curiousity at the sounds coming from within the coliseum and went to investigate while Magnus and Shadowmoon made straight for the tower.
A late night curfew is in effect at 10pm. Two of the “Red Guard” approach the party in the middle of the street and suspicion is raised over what the party’s motivations might be. Chili casts a minor illusion down the street to create a diversion but that tactic becomes short-lived as the Red Guard refocus on the heroes.

The two Red Guard move back towards the party just outside of the Mages Tower and Chili stops them in their tracks with a Sleep Spell. Both of the Reds collapse in snoring heaps in the middle of the deserted street. Magnus shoots an arrow and misses both. Shadowmoon let’s fly with an arrow and quickly dispatched a guard with a deadly hit to the left eye socket. Torin approached the final sleeping guard and took his head cleanly off with a heavy-handed overhead swing of his greatsword.

The party moved the guard’s bodies into the Mage Tower and explained the recent developments to Finnard. The heroes were then introduced to Finnard’s Car Familiar named Sanjex. Finnard stated that Sanjex would lead the party to a remote pond in the swamps West of Kainex whereLuroka Hammerdust reportedly had a “run in” with Baba Yaga’s walking hut. Luroka reportedly lost some belongings at that location which could prove to be informative towards this investigation.

Our heroes set out the next morning with Sanjex slinking ahead to lead the way. They left the city and travelled westward on foot towards the swampy terrain to the west. Half a day’s travel brought them down a historically well travelled trade road through the swampy ground. The “sunken road” has become etched into the soft swampy landscape through centuries of heavy use. They travel down this road and encounter what appears to be a lone Kobold meandering his way towards the party on the road. Chili dispatches the lone kobold with well placed Magic Missiles to its chest. A closer inspection reveals that this Kobold is actually a zombie.
Sanjex continues leading the way and exits the sunken roadway for a smaller game trail through the thick tree cover. A half mile ahead they come upon a 20’ diameter pool centered in a large natural bowl shaped depression in the landscape. Torin peers into the pool and can see a wooden box sitting at the bottom of the 5’ deep pool. It stands open and six potions are sitting inside it. The party debates various ways to retrieve the potions and finally decides to tie a rope to Torin as he goes in to get the potions. They discover that one of the six potion bottles is broken and there is a scroll tube with a parchment inside that lists the six potions: Invulnerability, Healing, Poison, Heroism, Gaseous Form and Giant Strength.

Distinct sounds of movement are heard ahead in the treeline and the party encounters a lone Magic User type approaching on foot with a weird green skull in his hand. Six Kobold Skeletons are following behind his approach as if he is their master.

Majnus draws his bow and places an arrow through the right eye of this Shadowy Mage, dropping him in his tracks. The rest of the party moves into position to engage the six remaining minions. One of the diminutive skeletons is carrying a greenish and foul looking Morning Star and takes a swing at Bumstone with it. The party watches in horror as the spiked ball opens into a fanged mouth and bites Bumstone on his right shoulder. The orderly combat lines seem to significantly crumble for the party at this moment beginning with Majnus attempting to loose another arrow, breaking his bow string in the process. Combat continues back and forth with some give and take on both sides but not before Bumstone takes a swing with his hammer and loses grip on it. He watches as it sails into the crowd of minions with no effect. Torin swings his great sword and drops it at his own feet. Chili takes a life threatening hit that incapacitates him. Shadowmoon sends a healing word towards Chili; while Majnus draws his sword and swings with it, also sending it flying from his own slippery grasp headlong behind the party and out of reach. Chili finds an opportunity to effectively use Burning Hands to quickly destroy two of the skeletons at the edge of the melee.

The frantic combat continued back and forth as Bumstone goes into a full on defensive posture against the remaining cluster of three skeletons who were flailing on him with their boney arms and fists. The one skeleton with the greenish Morning Star maintained a constant pressing attack on Bumstone. Shadowmoon used another Healing Word to help Bumstone in his defensive struggle as the party finally came together in coordinated attacks to fell the final three skeletons.

Our heroes took a short rest after safely gathering up the strange and menacing Morning Star in a large sack. Nightfall is still upon them as they then felt their Moongate Pendants come alive with a faint warmth and soft light. The party was able to discern that the pendants grew in warmth and light when pointed in an exact direction and grew faint when veering off of this given course. They followed their necklace beacons for approximately a quarter mile towards a clearing where a faintly glowing stone obelisk freshly stood above a small mound of upturned dirt and rocks. This obelisk had just recently advanced itself out of the freshly turned rock and earth resting beneath it.

A bit of discussion ensued before the heroes finally took their turns touching the obelisk and being transported back to Finnard’s Mage Tower.